NEWS

Calcutta sits on ticking e-waste bomb

Source: Telegraph India, Date: September , 2015

Calcutta
tops the chart in generating e-waste after Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bangalore and
Chennai. An ill-equipped disposal system has ensured that a major chunk of the
e-waste is crudely dismantled or burnt in a little over 1,000 informal units in
the city and suburbs, exposing millions to health hazards, a Metro
investigation, supported by the Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi, has
found. In contrast, the other cities have better systems in place. Bengal has
only one of the 138 authorised e-waste collection and processing centres in the
country, a Central Pollution Control Board source said. A West Bengal Pollution
Control Board official's admission exposed the gravity of the situation.
"We have only one authorised unit in the state for processing e-waste....
It is in Hooghly," he said. "But the unit works with a limited
variety of e-waste, mostly collected from a handful of IT companies."